BLACKLISTED MY PHONE BY MISTAKE NOW CANT GET BACK WORKING

I recently moved to Bowling Green KY for a job. I have had Verizon Wireless for over 16 years, unfortunately there is not a Verizon store in Bowling Green so I decided to get a line through AT&T. My aunt has a business account with AT&T and had an extra phone because she had upgraded, and her old phone had just been sitting in a drawer at her house. She gave me this phone as it works fine, and she never experienced any issues with it, plus it looks brand new. 

I went in to the AT&T store in Bowling Green, KY and was asking about their plan specials. I told the young man helping me what I had seen online. The gentlemen, very rude, asked why I didn’t just order the service online then and stated they had no specials and if I wanted something I saw on the internet then just to get it there. Basically, letting me know he did not want to help me. Especially if I wasn’t going to be purchasing a new phone. I left the store rather offended that he didn’t seem to care if I became an AT&T customer or not.

So I took his advice and set up my service online. This was on 6/19. I called AT&T later that day and asked if I could come in to the store and just pick up the sim card rather than waiting for it to come in the mail. The lady looked into it and told me that wasn’t a problem at all. I had her double check because I did not want to drive there if I couldn’t get it. She stated it would be no problem. I immediately headed to the store. When I got there, they told me they couldn’t give me a sim card because the one I ordered had already shipped out!

The sim was expected to come in the very next day so I figured it was nothing to get upset over I could wait. I received the sim and activated my phone on 6/20 and everything was fine. Until afternoon on 6/25. My phone wasn’t working. I went online to my AT&T account and it said my phone was deactivated. It asked if I wanted to reactivate so I did and it started working again. A little while later it happened again. I called AT&T who said the device had been reported stolen?? I called my aunt who told me that made no sense. She is the only one who has had that phone and it’s been sitting in a drawer for months. Why would someone 5 days after I started using it call in and report it stolen and how? AT&T let us know it was very likely an error and someone had entered in the wrong imei resulting in my phone being wrongfully shut 

off. However, we still had to prove the phone wasn’t stolen, regardless of the fact it was an error on AT&T’s side. So after numerous calls with AT&T and trips to the local store, with my aunt, who had to bring in proof of buying the phone etc we finally resolved the issue (but trust me if was far from easy) and the phone was turned back on and we were told it wouldn’t happen again and there are clear notes in my account stating the phone was not stolen and it was shut off by accident. 

On the night of 6/26 everything was resolved, and the phone was turned back on and working perfectly. Until 7/22……when the phone stopped working again! Below is a breakdown of how my experience has been since. 

7/2218 9:45AM 45MINS CALLED 800 331 0500

            THE LADY HELPING STATED IT WAS AN AT&T ERROR THAT IT HAD BEEN TURNED OFF. SHE REACTIVATED PHONE. SAID SHE WAS GOING TO NOTATE EVERYTHING REALLY WELL SO IT DID NOT HAPPEN AGAIN. IT DID NOT IMMEDIATELY WORK. SHE SAID IT COULD TAKE A COUPLE HOURS. MAYBE EVEN 24.

THEY CALLED ME (DIFFERENT LINE) AT 1PM LEFT A VMAIL TELLING ME IT SHOULD WORK SOON….IT STILL WASN’T WORKING. SHE DIDN’T LEAVE A NUMBER TO CALL HER BACK.

7/23/18 WENT TO LOCAL AT&T WAS THERE WELL OVER AN HOUR.

THE LADY CALLED TECH SUPPORT WHO TRIED TO TROUBLE SHOOT WITH HER. THEN SAID IT COULD POSSIBLY TAKE 48 HOURS. THEY BOTH AGREED THAT WAS PROBABLY WHAT IT WAS. THE TECH SUPPORT GUY SAID HE REALLY DID KNOW OTHER THAN THAT AND THAT THEY WOULD CALL ME THE NEXT DAY TO MAKE SURE IT WAS BACK ON. HE SAID NO ONE WAS WORKING ON IT BC A “CASE” WASN’T CREATED BY THE LADY WHO HELPED ME BEFORE. SO HE CREATED A CASE AND GAVE ME A CASE NUMBER. HE SAID HE WOULD CALL ME 7/24 IN THE AFTERNOON. I ASKED HIM TO CALL EARLIER, HE STATED THAT WAS FINE….NEVER HEARD ANYTHING FROM AT&T. I DID NOT RECIVE A CALL AND MY PHONE WAS STILL NOT WORKING

7/25 6:35 PM 40MINS STILL HADNT HEARD A THING CALLED 800 331 0500

CALLED IN ASKING WHAT WAS GOING ON. THE GENTLEMAN TOLD ME NO ONE CALLED BECAUSE THEY HAD NOT RESOLVED THE ISSUE. TOLD ME IT WAS AN AT&T ERROR AND MULTIPLE CUSTOMERS WERE AFFECTED AND PHONES ARE NOT WORKING. HE SAID HE DIDN’T KNOW WHEN THEY WOULD GET IT RESOLVED BUT IT WAS PRIORITY. TOLD ME IT COULD BE A DAY, A MONTH, A YEAR, HE REALLY COULDN’T SAY. BUT REPEATEDLY STATED HOW IT WAS AN AT&T ERROR AND HE UNDERSTOOD MY FRUSTRATION. ASKED FOR HIM TO SEND ME A REPLACEMENT PHONE UNTIL THE ISSUE WAS RESOLVED. AFTER BEING ON HOLD MULTIPLE TIMES HE STATED AT&T DOESN’T DO THAT!

7/30 8PM – 915PM WENT BACK TO LOCAL STORE

WORKED WITH THE SAME LADY AS I DID 7/23

SHE TRIED TO TROUBLE SHOOT

THEN CALLED TECH SUPPORT. THE TECH SUPPORT LADY SAID IT WAS A GALAXY NOTE ON MY ACCOUNT? SAID THAT WITH MY NUMBER SHE COULD SEE I HAD FILED AN INSURANCE CLAIM AND DIDN’T RETURN THE BROKEN PHONE? THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE BECAUSE I JUST GOT THAT NUMBER AND JUST STARTED SERVICE WITH AT&T, PLUS I DO NOT HAVE INSURANCE ON THE PHONE. THE TECH SUPPORT LADY PUT US ON HOLD, THEN SOMEHOW THE AT&T STORE REP GOT DISCONNECTED FROM HER.

STORE REP CALLED BACK AND SPOKE WITH A MAN IN TECH SUPPORT WHO SAID THERE WAS AN OUTAGE IN THE AREA AND THAT’S WHAT WAS CAUSING THE PHONE NOT TO WORK?

THEN THE STORE MANAGER CAME TO HELP AND HE TOLD ME THE PHONE WAS “BROKEN” AND THAT I JUST NEED TO BUY A NEW PHONE BECAUSE THE IPHONE 6’S JUST ARENT GOOD PHONES. THEN WALKS AWAY.

NEXT THE LADY HELPING ME ASKS WHAT I AM GOING TO DO? ME. WHAT I AM GOING TO DO. DOENST TELL ME WHAT AT&T WILL DO. BUT WHAT WILL I DO. SHE PROCEEDS TO TRY TO PRUSUADE ME INTO BUYING A NEW PHONE. SHE STARTS THE FULL SALES APPROACH.

Now here we are August 10th and my phone still does not work.

It is amazing to me all the different reasons AT&T has given me as to why my phone is not working. However, not one person has come up with a solution. It has been made clear to me by the technical support team that this was completely caused by AT&T. so the fact that NO ONE has resolved it or come up with a solution is mind blowing to me. I am a single female who lives alone. Having a phone is critical as I do not have a home phone.

Also I have been sent numerous bills that don’t seem right but when I brought them in asked the lady in the store about them she said she had no idea and that it doesn’t matter right now because I don’t need to pay anything while my phone isn’t working.

I am writing because the customer service I have experienced has been a nightmare and I thought I should document all my encounters as they have all been very negative. I am also writing because I need a solution. Could you please help me resolve this situation? If AT&T cannot resolve this I would like to be reimbursed for the bills I have paid. In additional I think I should be compensated for my phone that was working perfectly fine before AT&T decided to black list it for no reason at all.

I hope to hear back soon as the amount of time I have went without service or a call back regarding my “case” is unacceptable.

(I wrote this email to send to customer support however it looks like they don’t have an email to send this to, does anyone know where I can send this email? )